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Canto I XLIX

Lord Byron (1788–1824) · 1812–1818

iambic pentameter · spenserian stanza · 27 lines · from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

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Not so the rustic: with his trembling mateHe lurks, nor casts his heavy eye afar,Lest he should view his vineyard desolate,Blasted below the dun hot breath of war.No more beneath soft Eve's consenting starFandango twirls his jocund castanet:Ah, monarchs! could ye taste the mirth ye mar,Not in the toils of Glory would ye fret;The hoarse dull drum would sleep, and Man be happy yet.

How carols now the lusty muleteer?Of love, romance, devotion is his lay,As whilome he was wont the leagues to cheer,His quick bells wildly jingling on the way?No! as he speeds, he chants 'Viva el Rey!'And checks his song to execrate Godoy,The royal wittol Charles, and curse the dayWhen first Spain's queen beheld the black-eyed boy,And gore-faced Treason sprung from her adulterate joy.

On yon long level plain, at distance crownedWith crags, whereon those Moorish turrets rest,Wide scattered hoof-marks dint the wounded ground;And, scathed by fire, the greensward's darkened vestTells that the foe was Andalusia's guest:Here was the camp, the watch-flame, and the host,Here the brave peasant stormed the dragon's nest;Still does he mark it with triumphant boast,And points to yonder cliffs, which oft were won and lost.

Words in this poem

afar adv.
At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
vineyard n.
An inclosure or yard for grapevines; a plantation of vines producing grapes. [For OE. winyard, AS. wingeard; influenced by E. vine. See Wine, and Yard an inclosure.]
blasted a.
Blighted; withered.
fandango n.
A lively dance, in 3-8 or 6-8 time, much practiced in Spain and Spanish America. Also, the tune to which it is danced. [Sp. A name brought, together with the dance, from the West Indies to Spain.]
jocund
Merry; cheerful; gay; airy; lively; sportive. [L. jocundus, jucundus, orig., helpful, fr. juvare to help. See Aid.]
muleteer n.
One who drives mules. [F. muletier, fr. mulet a mule, dim. fr. L. mulus.]
jingling n.
The act or process of producing a jingle; also, the sound itself; a chink.
execrate v. t.
To denounce evil against, or to imprecate evil upon; to curse; to protest against as unholy or detestable; hence, to detest utterly; to abhor; to abominate. [L. execratus, exsecratus, p. p. of execrare, exsecrare, to execrate; ex out + sacer holy, sacred. See Sacred.]
whereon adv.
On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
dint n.
A blow; a stroke. [OE. dint, dent, dunt, a blow, AS. dynt; akin to Icel. dyntr a dint, dynta to dint, and perh. to L. fendere (in composition). Cf. 1st Dent, Defend.]
vest n.
An article of clothing covering the person; an outer garment; a vestment; a dress; a vesture; a robe. [L. vestis a garment, vesture; akin to Goth. wasti, and E. wear: cf. F. veste. See Wear to carry on the person, and cf. Divest, Invest, Travesty.]
yonder adv.
At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Canto I XLIX is in the public domain. This text is taken from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Project Gutenberg ebook #5131; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Lord Byron, Canto I XLIX, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-xlix.html, id L06492.

Form and metre

Canto I XLIX is 27 lines in 3 stanzas of 9 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABBCBCC, the Spenserian stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in the Spenserian stanza, other poems in iambic pentameter.

Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.

Rhyme words, stanza by stanza

The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.

  1. 1 ABABBCBCC mateA · afarB · desolateA · warB · starB · castanetC · marB · fretC · yetC
  2. 2 ABABBCBCC muleteerA · layB · cheerA · wayB · reyB · godoyC · dayB · boyC · joyC
  3. 3 ABABBCBCC crownedA · restB · groundA · vestB · guestB · hostC · nestB · boastC · lostC
Scansion, line by line

Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
Not so the rustic: with his trembling mate10···/˘··/˘·
He lurks, nor casts his heavy eye afar,10·····/˘·˘/
Lest he should view his vineyard desolate,10·····/˘/˘·
Blasted below the dun hot breath of war.10/˘········
No more beneath soft Eve's consenting star10······˘/˘·
Fandango twirls his jocund castanet:10˘/···/˘/˘˘
Ah, monarchs! could ye taste the mirth ye mar,10·/········
Not in the toils of Glory would ye fret;10·····/˘···
The hoarse dull drum would sleep, and Man be happy yet.12·········/˘·
How carols now the lusty muleteer?10·/˘··/˘···
Of love, romance, devotion is his lay,10··˘/˘/˘···
As whilome he was wont the leagues to cheer,10··········
His quick bells wildly jingling on the way?10···/˘/˘···
No! as he speeds, he chants 'Viva el Rey!'10······/˘··
And checks his song to execrate Godoy,10·····/˘˘/˘
The royal wittol Charles, and curse the day10·/˘/˘·····
When first Spain's queen beheld the black-eyed boy,10····˘/····
And gore-faced Treason sprung from her adulterate joy.13···/˘···˘/˘··
On yon long level plain, at distance crowned10···/˘··/˘·
With crags, whereon those Moorish turrets rest,10··˘/·/˘/˘·
Wide scattered hoof-marks dint the wounded ground;10·/˘····/˘·
And, scathed by fire, the greensward's darkened vest10···/···/˘·
Tells that the foe was Andalusia's guest:10······˘/˘·
Here was the camp, the watch-flame, and the host,10··········
Here the brave peasant stormed the dragon's nest;10···/˘··/˘·
Still does he mark it with triumphant boast,10······˘/˘·
And points to yonder cliffs, which oft were won and lost.12···/˘·······
Notes from the edition 3

E. H. Coleridge's notes to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, The Works of Lord Byron, Poetry vol. II (John Murray, 1899; Project Gutenberg #25340). Bracketed passages are the editor's; unbracketed are Byron's own (Cantos I-III) or John Cam Hobhouse's (Canto IV, his 'Historical Notes'). Digit footnotes ('[17]') are informational and numbered continuously through the whole book; end-notes keyed '[n.B.]' (Byron) or '[n.H.]' (Hobhouse) follow each canto and are numbered afresh from 1 there. Both kinds are placed here by matching each note's own quoted words against the site's text, not by the number or stanza the note states, because the site's text (Gutenberg #5131) and this edition (#25340) are different editions with different stanza counts in Canto I. Lettered footnotes ('[h]', '[dn]') are manuscript and edition variant readings and are not harvested, matching the treatment of Don Juan's and byron-works-3's lettered notes.

  1. Stanza 1, line 6 [See The Waltz: Poetical Works, 1898, i. 492, note 1.]
  2. Stanza 2, line 5 "Viv[=a] el Rey Fernando!" Long live King Ferdinand! is the chorus of most of the Spanish patriotic songs. They are chiefly in dispraise of the old King Charles, the Queen, and the Prince of Peace. I have heard many of them: some of the airs are beautiful. Godoy, the Principe de la Paz, of an ancient but decayed family, was born at Badajoz, on the frontiers of Portugal, and was originally in the ranks of the Spanish guards; till his person attracted the queen's eyes, and raised him to the dukedom of Alcudia, etc., etc. It is to this man that the Spaniards universally impute the ruin of their country.

    [Manuel de Godoy (1767-1851) received the title of Principe de la Paz, Prince of the Peace, in 1795, after the Treaty of Basle, which ceded more than half St. Domingo to France. His tenure of power, as prime minister and director of the king's policy, coincided with the downfall of Spanish power, and before the commencement of the Peninsular War he was associated in the minds of the people with national corruption and national degradation. He was, moreover, directly instrumental in the betrayal of Spain to France. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, October 27, 1807, Portugal was to be divided between the King of Etruria and Godoy as Prince of the Algarves, Portuguese America was to fall to the King of Spain, and to bring this about Napoleon's troops were to enter Spain and march directly to Lisbon. The sole outcome of the treaty was the occupation of Portugal and subsequent invasion of Spain. Before Byron had begun his pilgrimage, Godoy's public career had come to an end. During the insurrection at Aranjuez, March 17-19, 1808, when Charles IV. abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand VII., Godoy was only preserved from the fury of the populace by a timely imprisonment. In the following May, by which time Ferdinand himself was a prisoner in France, he was released at the instance of Murat, and ordered to accompany Charles to Bayonne, for the express purpose of cajoling his master into a second abdication in favour of Napoleon. The remainder of his long life was passed, first at Rome, and afterwards at Paris, in exile and dependence. The execration of Godoy, "who was really a mild, good-natured man," must, in Napier's judgment, be attributed to Spanish venom and Spanish prejudice. The betrayal of Spain was, he thinks, the outcome of Ferdinand's intrigues no less than of Godoy's unpatriotic ambition. Another and perhaps truer explanation of popu …
  3. Stanza 3, line 1 [The scene is laid on the heights of the Sierra Morena. The travellers are looking across the "long level plain" of the Guadalquivir to the mountains of Ronda and Granada, with their "hill-forts ...perched everywhere like eagles' nests" (Ford's Handbook for Spain, i. 252). The French, under Dupont, entered the Morena, June 2, 1808. They stormed the bridge at Alcolea, June 7, and occupied Cordoba, but were defeated at Bailen, July 19, and forced to capitulate. Hence the traces of war. The "Dragon's nest" (line 7) is the ancient city of Jaen, which guards the skirts of the Sierras "like a watchful Cerberus." It was taken by the French, but recaptured by the Spanish, early in July, 1808 (History of the War in the Peninsula, i. 71-80).]

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